Working in Maastricht
 

I looked but I wasn't able to find this thread. For you that have worked or are working in Maastricht, will you answer me a few questions?

1.Your overall opinion of working in Maastricht. I have seen that work day is 9 hours long. How is it spaced (2 on 1 off?)?
2.What about the city, what is your opinion about living in it?
3.Salary? On Eurocontrol site it says 4200 euros for expat, but I presume it grows during the years? Are you able to live well on that salary?
4.What about working conditions?

Thanks

Hm, 120 views and no answers? COme on guys, I am in dillema here, I need to decide where to start my future. Croatia or Netherland.

Thanks

Hi Killua,
I am sure the answers are out there somewhere! But I will add my opinion anyway.

1+4 - Working in Maastricht is generally good ( every company has certain issues) We work with one of the most modern systems in the world that is constantly being updated and upgraded with a lot of money being invested in it.:)
The shift pattern is 4 on and 2 off, all shifts are 8 hours long with 30mins. of that being briefing time ( unless you work in the Hannover sectors in which case you work 2 hours per shift - it is safer for everyone if they aren't there for long :E ). We can work maximum 2 hours in a row without a break and 25% of working time is break ( during the day - 33% at night).
The rest and sports facilities aren't the best and we keep being told that they are going to be upgraded but nothing has come of it yet:hmm:

2 - Maastricht is a nice enough city, fairly small and doesn't attract a lot of big city companies or big events - it depends where you are from and what you are used to, but there are plenty of other options in the area. Dusseldorf, Koln, Aachen, Liege, Brussels and Eindhoven are all within 1 hour drive and there are reasonable transport links.

3 - the salary sounds about right, but you will get shift allowance and various other benefits which means after qualification you will start on around 5 - 5,500 Euros per month which is more than adequate to live on if you compare it to the average local salary of +/- 2,000 Euros. Also you have a guaranteed promotion structure which means you will get regular increases:ok:

Hope this helps.

or in the Brussels Sectors where they have no traffic at all for hours on end:E


Go DECO :ok:

Killua, as you will have noted, there's healthy intra Sector Group banter too! There are about 28 different nationalities and cultures working at the Maastricht UAC and it works amazingly well. As in any organization there are some negative elements. They are called "managers". With some exceptions, most haven't a clue how to "manage" and live in an imaginary little world while the ops staff get on with the real work.:E But that's life and it won't change.:{ Cynisism apart (I've been working here far too long), Maastricht UAC is a good place to work and the surrounding area is very nice to live in.

Hi, Killua

Well, the answer to your question (i.e Croatia or Maastricht) will depend on your personal situation (single or married ,APP licence or not, background ,age ,etc..)

If you have APP rating ,for instance, then some city on the coast of Adriatic is always a GO(at least for me:}).

If you are abowe 35 than i would say, stay away from Maastricht (i could elaborate further more on that if you want).

As for Maastricht:

1.The salary is OK (nothing extra but you can live on it)
2. The city is OK (a lot of shopping in Maastricht for your wife if you are married).
3.It's busy on the sectors with good working hours (see above my reply for details).

Now, it really depends where you are comming from (i've been a conversion on a couple of places (read continents)) and personal situation (started moving arround when i was just married now with couple of kids already and i can tell you, it's getting dificult) so the best answer is to see for your self.Visit the places where you have a chance to move and the final decision is always to be yours.

And by the way, if you decide to come to MUAC, you will have to stay for minimum of 5 years (i dont know if CROCONTROL have a clause in the contract like that).

So, if you want me to give you more specific answers, describe yourself ,and will try to give you PRO's and Con's as to the best of my knowledge.

Cheers,
mtnova

Thanks for all your answers guys :ok:

@mtnova: I have always wanted to live in Europe. I have been to Sweden a year ago and absolutely loved it. Most of all, the way of life and liberal mindset, it's much different than here in Croatia. Thats why Holland attracts me. I am single and don't intend to get married at least for 10 years, and I am looking for city with beautiful nature, great community and weather, and a lot of women available :eek:. I do understand that I will have to wor for 5 years in Maastricht, however, I would like to have a option of returning to my home country somewhere in the future (10+) years if I want to start a family, I would like to raise my children in Croatia (maybe not, I will have to see when I come to Holland). You say salary is OK, if the salary is 5k euros and average is 2k, then I would say it's more than ok. I would like to save some money if I am going to return in Croatia in the future.

Thanks for answers.

Maybe the above statement should read "the starting salary" etc. If you aim to make a career in Euromuddle you have the potential to earn an excellent salary.

Will it be as generally good when MUAC will be merged into the integrated FABEC ???... ;)

Yeah, another question I forgot, what is the future of MUAC (or Eurocontrol)?

Thanks

:} That, my friend, is the $64,000 question. Depending on the rumour of the day, it ranges from brilliant to zilch, zero, nul.

As for FABEC, the French are already doing their best to derail it. Others may join that bandwagon.

So what, controllers will lose their job if the worst happen?

The future of Eurocontrol as a controlling authority has been in the balance since day 1 due to attempts to derail it from many sides. The French and British since then; the Dutch in the 1970s and 80s, who's next?

But it's still there :ok:

But the stand in the market square does really nice fried fish!!

On the beach :ok:

P.S. The beer's not bad either.

.

Killua,

Maastricht is nice,great community for sure, as for the weather, well......

If you are living at the Croatian coast then you'll miss the sunny days big time, if you come here, to say the least.

It's not that bad,don't get me wrong, but definitely, it's not a top destination,speaking about weather.

But then, a lot of nice ,young ladies,that's for sure.:}

As for the salary, i confirm i was speaking about starter salary in the previous reply.But then, i understood that if killua joins he'll come as an ABINITIO.So that would be his salary for ,i don't know, but 3-4 years if i'm not wrong.

Avman, i was laughing for 15min on that one.But i like the French ,i must admit, they always do our job.:}


Cheers,

.... and just like Rio, we have Carnival

http://wildertje.borsatoweblog.nl/up...aqhyo26r5i.jpg

I work at MUAC and on the whole I like it.

I have been validated for just more than 1 year and clear 6600eur per month NET - if you cant live on that there is something wrong.

The atmosphere in the OPS room is very good and the working conditions IMO are good enough. The future is uncertain, but id say jobs will be safe for a good 10 years yet.

Have you already been accepted into Eurocontrol or are you still in the application process?

I am still thinking where will I apply. Can you say the average Holland salary since I would also like to save some money if I get the job.

Thanks

@BeT

I've been interested in becoming an ATC for a long while now but I never realized that the salary was THAT good over there. Sounds fantastic, to say the least.

May I ask how old you are?

Killua, the average Dutch salary is about €2500-€3000 a month, and that's before tax. How much you save will depend on your lifestyle. Your lifestyle may however change to whatever it is currently!

Lived and worked in Maastricht from 1997-2004 and loved the place. Only went for 3 years initially, but stayed seven, which says something. The old town centre is great, the restaurants and bars as good as anywhere in Europe and the Cloggies are generally good eggs. 99% of them anyway. House prices were quite reasonable back in 1997, but had more than doubled by the time we left in 2004. Equivalent to UK 'home-counties' prices.

A lot of people moved just over the border into Belgium from 1999 when the Dutch tax authority allowed mortgage interest tax deduction on Belgian mortgages.

After the first year, we moved up to Margraten in the 'mountains' or heuvelland. I'm good with languages, but it still took me 3 years to get to grips with Dutch expecially the Zuid Limburg 'Dialekt'.

I think Eurocontrol pay their salaries net of tax. If not, you can get the 30%-Rule or 35%-Rule as it was when I arrived. This meant the TOP 35% of your income was disregarded for Dutch tax. Also you can park any savings offshore if you register with the Belastingdients as a 'Non-resident Resident'(!) A bit like the UK non-domiciled status.

I'd certainly recommend it. :ok:

Hi,
They said on the eurocontrol website, that the extra money for people working on shift is 1530 euros. ("Working shifts entitles staff to payment of a flat-rate shift allowance which is set at € 1530 for those working a 24/7 shift .").

Is it tax free?

Because we can read on the forum that you ll get just over 6000 € once qualified (all in) and the eurocontrol website says that starting net "basic" salary is 4457 euros.

So, are the 1530€ tax free?

Hi Dimdelu,

I believe the FRSA (Flat Rate Shift Allowance) is taxed, but with other adjustments and allowances the amount of "ancilliary" pay is actually about the same after the tax, so therefore you are correct that the monthly net pay for a newly qualified controller with both sector ratings is approximately €6300.

This thread is very outdated.

Is anyone here a current controller at MUAC who could shed some light on the working conditions there? Is the management good? What is the pay like nowadays?

Cheers,

I would say working conditions are still good. View on the management probably depends on every single colleague. I am personally very happy there. Colleagues are nice, the OPS room atmosphere is nice as well. Fully qualified the salary starts somewhere around 8k net.

Is it correct that nowadays it is more or less impossible to get hired externally into MUAC, and that they only take people from their own courses?

I think this is still the case, yes. I am not aware of any qualified atcos joining recently and have not seen any vacancies.

Is 8k net a sufficient amount to live in the local area? I'm not familiar with cost of living in the Netherlands. Does the pay increase regularly as you become more experienced?

It definitely is, yes. Working in Maastricht you also have the possibility to live in Belgium or Germany. In any of the countries the salary is more than sufficient. Salary increases regularly with smaller steps every 2 years followed by bigger steps every 5 years if I recall correctly.

How did you find the first year, I think it is in France? Are there lots of people failing?

Do most students live together like at University or renting privately an apartment?